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A bugged phone conversation in which two senior US officials traded offensive remarks about the European Union has ignited a diplomatic free-for-all and raised questions about the ability of the US to protect its sensitive communications from the spy apparatuses of Russia and other countries.

US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, clearly thought they were speaking on a secure line when discussing the political unrest in Ukraine and how the US government should help resolve the crisis. At one point during the January 25 call, Nuland colorfully rejected recent overtures from European Union leaders by telling her colleague: "Fuck the EU."

The four-minute call was posted to YouTube on Thursday. The voice quality is strikingly clear, suggesting the recording was made by a well-positioned source. Among the first people to tweet the link was an aide to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. US State Department officials quickly seized on the tweet as proof that the Russian government was involved in the eavesdropping, calling the episode a "new low in Russian tradecraft." The Russian government has denied any involvement.

The leak has strained other diplomatic relations, with Chancellor Angela Merkel saying Nuland's comment was "absolutely unacceptable." Nuland has since apologized for the remark.

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Meanwhile, it’s 1984 in Sochi

The accusations that Russia's government is behind the call recording intensifies concerns already voiced about the privacy of people attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi. A top Russian official raised the specter of a particularly Orwellian state in comments claiming that Western visitors are intentionally trying to sabotage the success of the event. In an article published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, said, "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall, and then leave the room for the whole day." The WSJ reporter was whisked away before he could ask follow-up questions.

Beyond the diplomatic fallout of the recording and concerns about intrusive spying by world governments, the leaked call raises important national security considerations. First, didn't the diplomats use encrypted phones to discuss such a politically sensitive topic, and if not, why? Alternatively, were the rooms of the US officials bugged, or are there other ways spies are able to bypass security measures the officials are using? In either case, the interception and public airing of the discussion represents a major security operations failure on the part of the US government.

It's also interesting to note that Merkel, who in the past has bitterly complained about NSA surveillance of her cellphone calls, hasn't been reported to condemn this most recent round of eavesdropping. The YouTube recording may be a reminder that the US and UK aren't the only countries with sophisticated and highly intrusive surveillance apparatuses.

Then again, there's no way to rule out the possibility that the call was recorded and leaked by people associated with the US. After all, headlines proclaiming that the tables have been turned on US diplomats could be a tactical ploy by people who are still smarting from the endless stream of revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.

In an article published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, said, "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall, and then leave the room for the whole day." The WSJ reporter was whisked away before he could ask follow-up questions.

This sounds like someone trying to steam the wrinkles out of his or her clothes. And really creepy that there's video of it.

Quote:

First, didn't the diplomats use encrypted phones to discuss such a politically sensitive topic, and if not, why? Alternatively, were the rooms of the US officials bugged, or are there other ways spies are able to bypass security measures the officials are using? In either case, the interception and public airing of the discussion represents a major security operations failure on the part of the US government.

This has been going on for as long as there have been telephones. Unless the humans speak in code, there is an "analog hole" in bugging the room that spy agencies will exploit with surprising regularity.

In an article published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, said, "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall, and then leave the room for the whole day." The WSJ reporter was whisked away before he could ask follow-up questions.

This sounds like someone trying to steam the wrinkles out of his or her clothes. And really creepy that there's video of it.

Personally, anyone who turns on hot water all day long to steam out their clothes is living in another world from me. Assuming this wasn't a deliberate attempt to create problems with the amenities, it seems like the actions of a truly irresponsible person.

That said, video in the shower is sure an INTERESTING revelation. Are all the hotel showers on cam? Does everyone know that? V. Interesting.

In an article published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, said, "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall, and then leave the room for the whole day." The WSJ reporter was whisked away before he could ask follow-up questions.

This sounds like someone trying to steam the wrinkles out of his or her clothes. And really creepy that there's video of it.

Personally, anyone who turns on hot water all day long to steam out their clothes is living in another world from me. Assuming this wasn't a deliberate attempt to create problems with the amenities, it seems like the actions of a completely clueless person.

That said, video in the shower is sure an INTERESTING revelation. Are all the hotel showers on cam? Does everyone know that? V. Interesting.

I was assuming that "all day" was just a rough translation for a "long time." True, if it really was all day then that's really excessive. But don't lose track of the whole "we have surveillance video" part.

They have surveillance video in the bathroom... Are these spies, or just perverts?

I get the utility of it. Where better to set up your weapons than in a place that has assumed privacy due to the insecurity of human beings...

I just wonder if people are told that when they register... I would guess, NO.

I would have no problem with hazmat detectors in the hotel rooms, even ones sensitive to gunpowder to sniff out bullets. Cameras? I'd be on a plane home by now.

It's complicated. I have mixed feelings. I know, as an American and a Westerner, I supposed to be really concerned about other people seeing my genitals, or watching me pee, or grunt while I poop, or whatever, but really, those are normal human activities and "members". Is someone laughing at me? I doubt it. If they are, really, the jokes on their own retarded growth, and I could still care less. Personally, it would make as much difference to me as if they had cameras on a beach.

Basically, I don't actually see how it would effect me. The IDEA of it doesn't bother me. I must be a mutant or something. That said, I'm only saying this about Sochi, not Motel 8 in Podunk. I wouldn't fly to Russia and go to the Winter Olympics with some ideological expectation of absolute privacy, even in the bathroom. YMMV.

Personally, anyone who turns on hot water all day long to steam out their clothes is living in another world from me. Assuming this wasn't a deliberate attempt to create problems with the amenities, it seems like the actions of a truly irresponsible person.

Yes, EU and especially Germany have been a bit too silent about the events in Ukraine, that probably explains Nuland's comment.

Germany depends on Russian gas imports since they decided to close all their nuclear power stations, so it probably doesn't want to upset Russia.

About the shower stuff, maybe the surveillance camera was outside the room, and caught the person leaving the room. The shower could be found running a few hours later the cleaning stuff, and the tape showed how long the person was out.

You'd think that the diplomats would use an app similar in nature to WhisperSoft's RedPhone. All the more reason for the NSA to get behind the open-sourced, open-reviewed, open-implemented "Dark Mail and Dark Phone" initiatives just now getting underway.

Total irony and a hoot at the same time.

It's tragic, though, that in all likelihood many more Ukrainian protesters will be abducted, tortured, and possible even killed because the U.S. is continuing to sit on the sidelines, "f*cking the EU."

I find it interesting that the discussion here so far is on the bathroom surveillance (something already widely reported and generally unrelated to the article) and not the phone call...

What makes you think the discussions are different ?

How many spy novels have you read where one party (or both) turn on the shower and use the white noise to cover up the phone conversation. Maybe FSB has a new trick to remove white noise from bathroom bugs.

First, didn't the diplomats use encrypted phones to discuss such a politically sensitive topic, and if not, why? Alternatively, were the rooms of the US officials bugged, or are there other ways spies are able to bypass security measures the officials are using? In either case, the interception and public airing of the discussion represents a major security operations failure on the part of the US government.

This has been going on for as long as there have been telephones. Unless the humans speak in code, there is an "analog hole" in bugging the room that spy agencies will exploit with surprising regularity.

Edit: clarity.

Unless the call was done over speakerphone, this was not a bugged room.

More fun with Irony: A reporter friend of mine told me when he checked in to his hotel in Sochi that there was no bedding, the television didn't work, and the phone lines didn't work.

I guess they should have hired the video surveillance people to take care of the phones and TVs too. They seem to be pretty good.

Oh, and about the hot water - apparently some of the Sochi hotels have set their hot water heaters for "lobster", as it's extremely hot when it leaves the faucet. Steaming one's clothes would be entirely realistic.

There are several things in this article. First, yes it is an embarrassment for the US to have its diplomatic phone lines bugged and then broadcast to the world. But the Russians are right; the US isinterfering in the affairs of countries in their orbit. I have to agree with the diplomat though: fuck the EU. It attracts Europe's worst politicians just like congress attracts ours.

Second, I have no doubt that certain westerners are trying to damage the olympics as much as they can. It's because of Russia's stance on gays. It's as if the western media is having a temper tantrum and insists on seeing everything about the olympics in a negative way. I hope Russia releases a video of the people doing the hotel room vandalism. "yeah, we caught you westerner, but you should complain about your own NSA spying on you instead of us".

The more I see what's going on, the more I am coming to believe that Russia, despite its faults, is the more decent, common-sense and reasonable party. They prevented an open US and international war in Syria; they jailed the lunatic Pussy Riot agitators and stopped the self-entitled Greenpeace sea pirate/hooligans in ways the U.S. never would have; they deal with islamists with more appropriate toughness than the US would on its soil, and they defend their sexual values without letting a minority hijack the entire debate and impose their will, as in the US. Oh and they gave asylum to Edward Snowden, who we should be hailing as a hero and patriot but who has to take refuge in Russia of all places. Good god. The U.S. has become such a whiny, narcissistic, victim-centered, self-destructing, false journalism, politically toxic society that it's a joke on the world stage.

And yes it makes you wonder what the Russian's spying capabilities really are. Known unknowns.

First, didn't the diplomats use encrypted phones to discuss such a politically sensitive topic, and if not, why? Alternatively, were the rooms of the US officials bugged, or are there other ways spies are able to bypass security measures the officials are using? In either case, the interception and public airing of the discussion represents a major security operations failure on the part of the US government.

This has been going on for as long as there have been telephones. Unless the humans speak in code, there is an "analog hole" in bugging the room that spy agencies will exploit with surprising regularity.

Edit: clarity.

Unless the call was done over speakerphone, this was not a bugged room.

Going way out on a limb with a theory about that ...

FSB could likely see the encrypted traffic. If NSA used the same key (to encrypt both sides of the call), I wonder if the possibility exists that bugging the analog (of one side) might have allowed them back into the encrypted stream. If NSA used different keys for each direction, then I agree with you totally.

Obviously it's not any more comforting when the russians spy than when the NSA does it. However, the outrage from the NSA spying is as much about the sheer SCALE of it. I think no one was naive enough to believe that the National SECURITY Agency didn't do any spying - they'd hardly be doing their job otherwise.

However, it went somewhat beyond what most people would have assumed, by spying on many civilians and even US citizens, that were most likely not in any way involved with matters concerning the NSA, or US security.

That the russians spy on US diplomats is hardly on the same scale, and is what I'd assume all governments try to do, especially towards nations that haven't always been... comradely.

The other thing that struck me as funny is when the US then has the audacity to call it "a new low in russian statecraft"... What, they hold the russians to loftier standards than the US' own agencies? I realize it's politics, and an official statement like that is to be expected, but it's still... incredibly ironic.